Minnesotans in Amantenango

Our last day in Chiapas began with breakfast at the Center for Intercultural Investigation in San Cristobal, where we finally met up with the small group from the First Congregational (UCC) Church of Grand Marais (pictured with me and Chris are Dave, Ben, Nancy and Pastor Peter). It was the day before Lent began, and the night before had been filled with noisey firecrackers throughout the city. A young German Swiss staff woman from the Center sat with us and described her work with the Center's Gender Program, which provides faith-based empowerment workshops and groups for local women on communication skills and self-esteem. Her assignment is to connect with the women through building relationships with their evangelical pastors (who refuse to address issues of women's health and domestic violence through the more secular feminist organizations in the city). The Center is one of the few progressive Chrisitan organizations working at these kinds of interfaith and social justice projects in the city, and has been the point of connection for the GM church on their trips to Chiapas.

Although our time with the Grand Marais group only overlapped one day, instead of the week that we had hoped for, it gave Chris and me a taste of the mission partnerships of our denomination and our new GM congregation in this region. The UCC initially got involved in this part of Mexico by helping with refugees fleeing the Guatemalan civil war in the 1980's, and later bridging the expanding hostile gulf between the Catholic Mayan congregations and the burgeoning evangelical Protestant churches.

The Grand Marais church has been coming down here for about six years now, and has developed a close relationship with the Catholic Mayan parish in Amantenango, which lies about an hour's drive outside of San Cristobal. We piled in a van and headed out to this small town, which is known for its strong indegenous Mayan culture and colorful pottery (see photo of clay roosters). Several years ago, the GM church contributed funds to help build the community room you see in the third photo. Peter also showed me a duffle bag filled with this year's contribution of dozens of hand-knit wool sweaters from the knitter's in our congregation, which are appreciated by the local children in the cool mountainous climate.

The local priest, Padre Carlo, cooked us a feast of Italian pasta (he is on "loan" from his dicoese in Tuscany!), tortillas, potatoes, and roasted chicken, and described to us (in Spanish/Italian/English) the ceremony of flowering the church sanctuary that was to be held later that afternoon. Again, in the statues and rituals in the church, we witnessed the "veneer" of Catholicism over the deep flow of Mayan spirituality and tradition.

-ASG